Practice question · Multiple choice
Litigants in twelfth-century England increasingly took their disputes to royal courts rather than to their lord’s court. Why does that matter for the growth of royal power?
Hints
- Ask what would have happened if the king had simply ordered seigneurial courts to close.
- Standard writs, circuit justices and juries made royal justice faster and more predictable, that was the selling point.
Show the answer
B. Royal jurisdiction expanded by attracting business rather than by abolishing rival courts
Why
Abolition would have required power the crown did not have. Instead Henry II made royal justice attractive — writs anyone could buy, judges who came to you, verdicts by sworn neighbours — and business migrated. Jurisdiction gained this way is durable, because the people using it have chosen it.
Practise The Feudal Monarchies
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